Joe Schmidt cool on Highlanders link but Irish future uncertain

Joe Schmidt insists he has made no commitment to joining Super Rugby’s reigning champions the Highlanders but his future with Ireland remains uncertain beyond next summer.

The Irish head coach, preparing the national side for tomorrow’s second Test in Johannesburg, said he had had a “very light conversation” with Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark before the tour as the New Zealand franchise looks for a successor to Tony Brown, whose contract expires at the end of next season, roughly a month after Schmidt’s IRFU deal runs outs on June 30, 2017.

Asked yesterday if a move to the Highlanders was a done deal, New Zealand-born Schmidt replied: “No, that was on the back of one conversation that Roger Clark had with me and I have made absolutely no commitment to the Highlanders, I’ve made no commitment to anyone other than my current employers.”